Tile-setting frame apparatus



Mrh 25, 1969 YouuKou sAKUMA 3,434,257

T ILE-SETT ING FRAME APPARATUS Filed Jan. 18. 1967 United States PatentOice 3,434,257 Patented Mar. 25, 1969 3,434,257 TILE-SETTING FRAMEAPPARATUS Youukou Sakuma, 9-10 Kiribatake, Kamigawa-ku, Yokohama-shi,Japan Filed Jan. 18, 1967, Ser. No. 610,143 Int. Cl. E04f 13/ 08 U.S.Cl. 52-387 1 Claim ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A tile setting frame havingintegral T-shaped ribs thereon which interlock with grooves in the sidesof the tiles and ller strips which extend between said tiles and overlapthe surface thereof.

The present invention relates to a tile-setting frame apparat'us for usein building and construction, and more particularly to a frame apparatusfor setting pieces of tiles made from porcelain, synthetic resin orother molded products for facing with tiles the walls, panels and othertiling-necessitated sections of the houses and other buildings.

The tiling of this kind has conventionally been practiced either byplacing pieces of tiling material on the tile-setting faces on which anadhesive is applied and then providing a proper joint iiller to thejoints of the tile pices, or by first setting the tile pieces in alattice frame and then applying this setting on the desired surfaces.But these methods require considerable skillfulness on the part of thetilers for achieving orderly and evenlysurfaced tile-setting. Further,since the tiles are supported on the setting faces only with theadhesive, they are likely to come off due to difference of humidity andtemperature of other dynamic elements such as impact or vibration.

A primary object of the present invention is to provide a tile-settingframe with which any person can easily and decently practicetile-setting at any desired place.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a tile-settingframe whereby the tile facing can be achieved easily and the joining ofthe tiles can be effected orderly and securely.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide atile-setting frame which permits extremely solid tile joint whereby theset tiles are kept free from coming off even if subjected to differenceof humidity or temperature, or to impact or vibration.

Various features and advantages of the present invention will :becomeclear from reading the following descriptions specifying an embodimentof the present invention shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG-URE l is a partial perspective view of a base plate of thetile-setting frame according to the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective 'View of a piece of tile;

FIGURE 3 is a partial perspective view of tiles fixed on the base plate;

FIGURE 4 is a partial tile-set surface view in which the spaces betweenthe tiles are joined up;

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view as taken on the line 5-5 of FIG. 4;

FIGURE 6 is a partial perspective view of a tile joint lling band; and

FIGURE 7 is an illustration showing the condition in which the tilepieces are being set in position.

Now the invention will be discussed on its particular structure shown inthe above-described drawings, and iirst the reference is made to FIG. lin which is shown, in part, the base plate 11 of the tile-setting frame,said base plate being molded from a plastic material and havingintegrally formed on its surface the projected ribs 12 which arearranged parallel to each other at a constant interval both lengthwiseand crossWise.

Each of said ribs 12 is T-shaped in section and fonmed with a head 13 atits tip. At the side edges of said head 13 are formed a pair ofprojections 15 at the identical position for each rib 12, and at properpositions on the surface of said base plate 11 are formed holes 1.4 forreceiving fastening rivets 14a.

Each tile piece 17 made from porcelain, plastics or other moldingmaterials has formed around its periphery a groove 16 arranged so as totly receive the head 13 of each rib on the surface of said base plate11, and on the inside of said groove 16 are formed recesses 18 at thepositions corresponding to the projections 15 provided at the side edgesof said rib head 13.

The latticed frame-shaped packing band 19 which is also made fromplastic material separately comprises a front piece 20 provided with anydesired coloring and pattern and a back piece 21, each piece being soformed as to correspond to the positions which cover the joint spaces17a between the tile pieces 17. Thus, by applying a suitable adhesiveagent, the ribs 12 and the filling band 19 are bonded together tightlyto thereby lill up the joint spaces 17a and the tile pieces 17 are thusexcellent in joint filling operation may be attained by conventionaljointing means using cement or other similar materials.

The base plate 11 of the tile-setting frame, which is composed asdescribed above, is beforehand set at fixed length both lengthwise andcrosswise and is provided on its surface with parallelly arranged ribs12 in a number corresponding to the number of tile pieces 17 to be used.After binding this base plate 11 ou a desired place to be tiled andfixing the same solidly with rivets 14a or other means, the tile pieces17 are inserted into the spaces between the ribs 12 on the surface ofthe base plate 11 in such manner that the heads 13 of the ribs 12 aresuitaa bly fitted into the grooves 16 on the periphery of the tilepieces 17 and that the projections 15 formed on both sides of the head13 of each rib 12 are iitted into the recesses 18 formed in the insideof each groove 16, whereby the tile pieces 17 are fixed in positionsecurely. Sincel te position of the projections 15 and the shape of thetile pieces 17 are set uniform, the tile pieces 17 are arrangedextremely orderly on the surface of the base plate 11.

The spaces 17a between the adjoining tile pieces 17 are covered by theplastic-made filling band 19 so formed as to correspond to the shape ofsaid spaces 17a, said band being bonded on the surface of the heads 13of the ribs 12 by applying a suitable adhesive thereto. The resultingsurface configuration is extremely decent and also stable.

It is of course possible in this case to cement conventional iillingmaterial instead of the filling band 19 of the present invention.

As described above, the tile pieces 17 are not only lbonded on thesurface of the base plate 11, but also supported by the ribs 12 of whichthe heads 13 are fitted in the grooves 16 of the tiles, resulting in anextremely solid tiled condition. Further, the jointing sections of thespaces 17a and the tile pieces 17 are th-us excellent ininterchangeability and mass-productivity, and the tiling operation canbe effected very economically.

It is also to be understood that various changes and modifications instructures in practicing the tiling opera tion can be made within thescope of the present invention without departing from the spirit of thepresent invention described in the', appended claim.

What is claimed is:

1. A tile-setting frame apparatus on which a plurality of tiles aremounted comprising: a base plate, a plurality of integral ribs arrangedat xed intervals and horizontal- 1y and vertically spaced from oneanother on the surface of said base plate, an enlarged head on each ofsaid ribs, projections on each of the enlanged heads; the tiles ybeingpreformed and including peripheral grooves receiving the heads of theribs, recesses formed in the grooves of said tile pieces for receivingthe projections, to maintain the tile pieces in mounted position wherebythe head portions of the ribs are shaped as to engage the grooves ofadjacent tile pieces arranged on opposite sides of the rib, and a llingband secured between the mounted adjoining tile pieces and serving tocover the joint spaces.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS JOHN E. MURTAGH, PrimaryExaminer.

